I have a new Macbook Pro from January 2008. This model wasn't yet referred to in the debian wiki, so i had a little difficulty at first. I also couldn't remember how to figure out what my wireless card was, and thus which drivers it needed, so ended up typing in a load of different commands. Here are some of the useful ones:

Had a lecture the other day which talked about "measurement error" validity and reliability." One of the concepts covered was the measurement error of categorical data, "usually referred to as misclassification." It went on to talk about the analysis of misclassification using a two by two matrix; however, it did it in a way that is extremely confusing and, unfortunately, very standard amongst medical teaching: what I call 'the a/(a+c) and b/(b+d) method'.

Have done quite a bit recently. Got a bike, and been on a bike ride (pictures) as well as starting back at school. Had difficulties getting online there, although the networking and IT support is fantastic. I think that is mainly due to the fact that I'm running debian on powerpc, a unique minority amongst computer users at the school - and probably on a wider basis than that as well.

I recently started back at school and, being one of the leading academic postgraduate institutions in the world, there is very good network access. However, not surprisingly, the support for linux is minimal - and being that I run Debian on an old powerbook, the computer help desk people all seemed to be more impressed with my machine but unable to help. They use Red Hat, though, and I was able to get one of the guys to show me the dhcp server logs, which was great as I could then tell what was working or not...

I decided to set up a fairly decent home network. My problem is I don't have many physical machines, though, so I decided to use vservers to help... This is how I did it.

I gave a talk yesterday on congenital diaphragmatic hernia to an audience in the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Brighton. The meeting was to discuss the possibilities of restarting a paediatric surgical service for neonates with this problem, as paediatric surgical and neonatal services have recently both started operating on the same site.

there used to be a copy of pred.txt online. there isn't anymore, so here is a replacement. predator, or michael carlton, was an amazing guy who did a lot more than many of us could imagine. this is his story, and some of his writing.

• Pred.txt (pdf - 11MB)

With the semi-collapse of Modernising Medical Careers (MMC), about which I have certainly written elsewhere, if not here, everyone seems to be trying to figure out what to do next. Despite Remedy UK failing in court, they are still the moral voice of UK doctors - and the BMA is rapidly backpedalling to try and regain legitimacy. This is evident in their most recent mail out to doctors, in which they say they are "committed to assisting junior doctors" - although this has hardly been apparent over the past few months, and it is the same signatories at the end of the mail sending us "Best wishes." What is perhaps most ironic is that the BMA consistently claims to be the voice of the profession, representing all doctors, even those not members, yet advice and surveys go only to their members. Oh, but for more choice... roll on Remedy, the union!

And another day. Exam day. Another exam day. For both the proctors (invigilators) and myself - and many of the other
candidates: they all seemed to be foreign. One guy said he'd done 8 different exams since qualifying - requalifications in
various countries. For myself, there will be more to come; and I hope they're not so fake as this one...

USMLE Step 2 CS (Clinical Skills) - "Standardised Patients," abbreviated history and physical, then a short "Patient Note"

Mexico to San Francisco, stopped and changed overnight in Los Angeles: the city of devils. Five hours in the coach station:
dank, sweaty, flourescent illumination and the crusted bodies of a million passers-through; lines winding around each
other, baggage piled high... I didn't ever want to come back.

And here I am. Not through any choice of my own - really. Well, maybe kind of, a little bit, but not the city that enticed
me: a whole other desire. And no, not a woman. I'm here for my exam: Step 2, Clinical Skills, of the USMLEs about which